In a recent NEWSWEEK Poll, Americans said they believed in God by a margin of 92 to 6, only 2 percent answered "don't know", and only 37 percent said they'd be willing to vote for an atheist for president. (That's down from 49 percent in a 1999 Gallup poll, which also found that more Americans would vote for a homosexual than an atheist.)
The above depressing quote is taken from Newsweek's article of 11 Sept 2006 titled The New Naysayers by Jerry Adler that highlights the recent writings of three (in)famous modern atheists: Sam Harris ("The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason", "Letter to a Christian Nation"), Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion"), and Daniel C. Dennett ("Breaking the Spell").
Sam Harris' op-ed piece in today's LA Times (24 Dec 2006) titled 10 myths — and 10 truths — about atheism is a futher attempt to enlighten the superstitious.
There is a sad aura of futility that pervades all this. I think it works much better in humorous form. Take this excerpt from The Dilbert Blog:
If a guy shows up for a job interview and tells you his religion requires him to wear a stuffed rhino penis as a hat, you can show him the door. But if he says his prophet walked on water, or rode to heaven on a flying horse, you slap a name tag on his cubicle and hope for the best.
At least I can be content that as a GAL (Gay Atheist Liberal) who thinks that taxes are too low and wholeheartedly endorses Joycelyn Elders' suggestion that schools should consider teaching masturbation to students as a means to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, I must rank among the most despised of Americans.
Next to George W. Bush, of course!
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2 comments:
You're preaching to the choir in my case, but nonetheless, good post.
I also enjoyed the Newsweek article and Harris's column. Thanks for the links.
You might enjoy seeing a video of Richard Dawkins speaking at Lynchburg, VA. Go to his site and scroll down a little.
After watching the above, I looked around on YouTube, to see if there was anything else like this. I came across The Root of All Evil?, a BBC 4 production made by and starring Dawkins. It's in five or six pieces, helpfully named "part 1, part 2, …," so just search on "richard dawkins" and look through the results.
Both this and the Lynchburg video are highly recommended.
Happy day-that-Bill-O'Reilly-likes-to-call-Christmas.
It is great news that Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) has now declared himself publicly to be a nontheist.
Can the Swift Boat Veterans for God be far behind?
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